Dungeon Hunter: Act I

Give Them an Inch

Jye's face was crinkled with delight.

"This isn't what I would've suggested," Axel said as Jye applied two Loads to him, and then hefted him up over their shoulder like he was just a down-filled pillow. Then, taking far too much pleasure, they grabbed Axel by the scruff of his shirt. Their arm muscles rippled as they yeeted the blond up at the top of the maze wall.

I half expected him to hit an invisible barrier, like an out of bounds stopper in a game, and bounce back. But he landed on top without issue, albeit ungracefully.

Scrambling, Axel grabbed for purchase. He landed on his stomach, his legs and arms dangling on each side of the labyrinth divider. I could hear a few choice words he was calling Jye as he calmed down. The gravity taking hold of him again was clearly perceptible when Jye released their ability from Axel's body. After a breath, he stood, testing out the top of the wall for firmness. Axel stomped his foot down, once, twice, and then three times, then shrugged. He shot me and the others a thumbs up.

"Looks dece."

"Who's next on the block?" Jye asked.

One by one, Jye lightened us and threw us up onto the top of the wall until it was only them standing down there. Surprisingly, when Axel had been in the sporting goods section of Kmart he'd picked up some rope. Which had been a stunningly good idea. As a team, we lowered the end of the rope. Jye applied Load to themself, and pulled themself up as we remained anchorage. Yes, we all could've used the rope after Axel got up there, but I didn't want to ruin Jye's fun. You gotta let people get the joy out of the small things, or you run the risk of never wanting to enjoy life again. Not to say I had been there. Well...

Eventually, all of us ended up atop the wall.

From there I could see that the maze walls stretched as far as the eye could see, disappearing in hazy lines as the curve of the world hid the true expanse from us. It really simply never ended. That proved that. There was no exit to the labyrinth. Not that I didn't trust Axel's word, but also I didn't trust his word. I guess the shrine was the only option left.

I turned to check the direction Axel had previously said the other people were in. Just vaguely I could see the blurry humanoid shapes. It was incredibly difficult to make out anything in more detail, though it appeared one was slightly smaller than the others. Part of me was hoping it wasn't a child. Still, if it was only us and them in here, then our chances were still pretty good with clearing the Dungeon. Axel had to have known the trio was so far away they wouldn't hear us. He'd just acted like that to be an asshole.

Pinching at the bridge of my nose, I scanned for the shrine.

It wasn't difficult to find.

To the side Axel had indicated, in a depressed level of the ground, there sat a stone shrine glowing faintly blue from the candles lit upon its offering porch. It was reminiscent of a Shinto shrine, but had none of the red gates. It was also unlabeled, not depicting to whom or what it was dedicated to. If I were being honest, it looked like a poor asset flip, much like the cabin. Other than the otherworldly gem maze, everything else in this Dungeon lacked imagination and creativity, almost like whoever had designed it had been been following a tutorial and had just been fucking around in the developing program.

"This way," I said, and I mentally plotted out our pathway to the shrine.

Being on top of the walls gave us the advantage of seeing more, but it also made it more difficult to get to certain places because of the gaps that turns and splits added to our pathway. That said, it would be easier progress and we would actually feel like we were advancing towards something rather than wandering aimlessly.